Play Midwest 90
Midwest 90: Rapid City (Alpha Demo)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art / Graphics | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Overall Fun | #9 | 4.600 | 4.600 |
| Sound/Music | #9 | 4.400 | 4.400 |
| Controls / UI | #22 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Genre
Action
Shooter | Platformer | Slasher | Beat em Up | Base Defense | Survival | Racing
Horror
Any Horror
Strategy
Turn-based | Card Games | RTS | 4X
Rating
For 13+
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Comments
Overall despite me not really being the demographic for this , I did enjoy my time with it.
Thank you! Sorry it wasnt your genre and that you had to go through so many games before M90. But am glad you found it interesting.
This game is super DUPER cool, I am obsessed with how these diner management and tower defense mechanics intertwine. Really really cool stuff, super ingenious and it works really well!
I admittedly haven't gotten through the whole demo yet but from what I've played I'm super impressed - every part of this game succeeds aesthetically and I DO wanna eat all the monster food! I think that the writing is really strong and I'm excited to see how it progresses and blossoms into arcs like the forward hints at. I think this game could be something really really neat!
I don't really have much feedback to give, I liked pretty much every aspect of this game... If I was being forced to give a small nitpick, I guess I would point out that there's a dialogue choice where you can tell Jericho that your "life is like a tower defense game" and he and all of his crew members laugh extremely hard... Maybe this is cruel to say but I don't believe that Jericho and his team would know what a tower defense game is. I don't read them as gamers at all, but I AM very delighted to imagine them all going home after their grueling shifts to wind down with some Bloons Tower Defense. Sorry, this is a really small thing that truly doesn't matter but since there's such an emphasis on worldbuilding and characters in this game I thought I'd speak my peace LOL.
I played the first hour or so on stream around 59:00
Thank you! And thank you for wishlisting! You video made the team so happy!
I absolutely LOVED this blend of genres. Played this game for 3hrs & while I'm not normally a Tower Defense girlie, there was just enough of it & the story-driven, management sim aspects of the game counterbalanced it perfectly.
Pros:
Cons:
→ Direct him to Nancy
→ Punch him (as a direct consequence of us learning that that's how Nancy dealt w/ a similar problem)
→ or Call Nancy Over
Critiques:
Regardless, I'd love a way to "Exchange/Break Down Ingredient" for "Other Ingredient".
For my full playthrough & initial thoughts on the game, you can watch it here (timestamps available):
Thank you for the game!Had a ton of fun playing Midwest 90! Art style is beautiful and the music was great. Game loop was fun, I feel like everything was introduced steadily so it wasn't overwhelming and I was able to grasp what was going on.
As far as issues go, not everything was immediately obvious to me in the hud. I didn't realize the days of the week till I was quite far in the demo so when it would pop up that I could change my perks I couldn't figure out where to keep track of the days. I eventually realized but like I said it did take me some time. It was also unclear to me that "Mr. X" would be rating my place. I thought once the 2 weeks were up some crazy event was gonna happen. Maybe I missed something in the initial letter but if not it was very unclear. There were also a few grammatical errors. Many places where it says "Am" but should have said "I'm" (unless this was done on purpose? But it didn't come across to me like that) as well as a line from Jericho that should have been blue but was instead white as if he was saying it. There was also a day where my cooks could not get passed the tables and into the kitchen even though it looked like enough space. They could still cook the food through the wall outside though haha. I moved the table and it fixed it but it would have been nice to know before placing it if they were not going to be able to walk by.
I was also curious if there could be different outcomes to things? When speaking with Nancy she wants us to look out for Pratchit (sp? the guy with the sign) but I don't believe I had an option to do that? And instead he became infatuated with the green light. Other than those few things it was a fun game and I look forward to the full release! I've included the vod below, Midwest starts at 53 mins in.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2552306332
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 8! My name's Hythrain, a co-host and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
Well, this was a surprisingly game. Honestly was having a lot of fun with it The artwork is really good and the music fits so well. Overall just a lot of fun.
The biggest issues I had while playing it was that there was nothing to tell me I needed to click on Wallace when I started (where he tells me to get a waiter), so I spent a lot time just sitting and waiting for the day to end as I figured he'd tell me that at the end of the day. I also had this issue with the first monster attack, where I didn't know I was supposed to let the attack happen so I could proceed and instead repaired the door several times. It may be better to remove the option to repair the door until after the monsters break it down (maybe add it as something Wallace brings up to do when you return from Jericho? Or maybe he already does this and I missed it because I repaired the door immediately).
Overall a ton of fun. I'm going to play it more in my off time and will try and provide more feedback as I do!
I've returned to give a bit more info from further playtesting.
First, I want to cover some bugs I've discovered. First, if you save while people are at their table but have not gotten their food yet (I think. It could be if they're eating already) and then load that save, the customers affected will suddenly get up and leave, giving you negative ratings. Also, if you save while a server is cleaning and then load that save, you'll lose the server. I also had one instance where a monster chose to attack and destroy a wall instead of going through the door despite the door both being open and being closer to where the monster came out.
With that said, I now have a better idea of other aspects I feel should be tweaked.
First, I'd like to suggest that the starting position for the diner be one tile forward. The reason why is because it feels rough that if you try to do ANY sort of expansion of the kitchen (which is desperately needed), you'll open a second pathway. However, you can still expand the dining area down one tile without risk.
Another suggestion would be to slow down the rate that employees will start demanding significantly higher raises. So when you're starting off and hiring your first server, Jonas is the most obvious pick based on his skill level and current state of happiness. However, his starting rate causes him to lose 15% happiness per day a little more than a week after you start. Since this happens very shortly after he had a huge drop due to the monster attack, it means you have to jack his pay way up. By the time you reach the end of the demo, you're paying him nearly 50% more from where you started, which feels like a lot.
I'm also going to mimic the recommendation of another and to suggest reducing the starting amount of money.